The plan

A FY 2012 budget presentation scheduled for Committee of the Whole

Monday, Feb. 14 — The Lansing City Council is scheduled to convene at 6:15 tonight as Committee of the Whole for a budget presentation.

But this is no ordinary budget presentation. City Council Vice President Kathie Dunbar is planning to formally introduce her idea to help fix the projected $15 million deficit for fiscal year 2012: Let city residents vote on a property tax increase.

Dunbar says her plan to levy a 4-mill property tax increase to help fund police, fire and road services will bring in about $8.5 million in revenue.

Following Committee of the Whole, the Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on developments in the East Village residential complex. The hearing is on an amendment to the original brownfield plan for the property.

At-Large Councilman Brian Jeffries has said that because the original environmental contamination assessment was inadequate and the fact that a new developer — Allen Edwin Homes — wants to finish the project with fewer homes than was originally planned, a new brownfield plan had to be drawn up.

This brownfield plan would last 14 years. Allen Edwin Homes would be reimbursed about $513,365 in environmental cleanup costs over that time.

While about 180 units were originally planned for the site on Saginaw Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Marshall Street, only 125 will be completed after Allen Edwin Homes’ projected $10 million investment. The 25-acre site was used for nearly 100 years as a juvenile detention center and training school.

The city purchased the property in the late 1990s. Burton-Katzman, the original developer, and the city entered into a purchase agreement in 2002. However, after the property went into foreclosure, the city is now forced to pay back the Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority for cleanup activities.